My Red Cell @ Camden Barfly

After a lengthy set-up by bald old bloke, who then sat at the back of the stage sweating during the set, it was a bit of a surprise to see just how young the band are. Yet for all their apparent coolness, their opening harmonies made it sound like I'd just walked into a Busted gig. From this point on things got increasingly bizarre. The lead guitarist frequently erupted into a pretend fit of guitar fighting and Electric Six style weirdo-dance moves. The flailing band seemed to be trying to 'do a darkness', their music a parody of several genres at once. Announcing that they're from Scotland, to which someone in the audience shouted 'liars!' (they're from Wales), they introduced a series of songs with titles like 'I Hate the Scottish But I Live There' and 'Fuck Love and Hate, Let's Masturbate'. This latter title sums up the band completely – they are guitar wankers – at points even literally, with the lead frantically fingering his guitar neck like some phallic over-statement. The gig was entertaining, but my laughing out loud ceased halfway through as the joke wore off.